Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

80%
+6 −0
Q&A How do you avoid the problem of a collaborative work having separate voices?

For fiction that can accommodate different POVs, dividing those up per author not only addresses this problem but can be a feature. For cases where you want a unified voice, if you can't get a toug...

posted 12y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  edited 4y ago by Monica Cellio‭

Answer
#4: Post edited by user avatar Monica Cellio‭ · 2020-10-18T20:48:03Z (about 4 years ago)
  • For fiction that can accommodate different POVs, dividing those up per author not only addresses this problem but can be a feature.
  • For cases where you want a unified voice, if you can't get a tough editor like Lauren Ipsum suggested, try having the authors edit each other's sections. In technical-writing teams I've found that this drives the material toward the center; I have no experience doing this with fiction but would expect it to work. But first sit everybody down to have the "don't take this personally; it's about the work" conversation to reduce the chance of bruised egos.
  • For fiction that can accommodate different POVs, dividing those up per author not only addresses this problem but can be a feature.
  • For cases where you want a unified voice, if you can't get a tough editor like Lauren Ipsum suggested, try having the authors edit each other's sections. Or, as noted in [another answer](https://writing.codidact.com/questions/5186#answer-5189), carry that idea farther and trade writing/editing passes on the whole work.
  • In technical-writing teams I've found that editing each others' parts of a doc set drives the material toward the center; I have no experience doing this with fiction but would expect it to work. But first sit everybody down to have the "don't take this personally; it's about the work" conversation to reduce the chance of bruised egos.
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:11:29Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/4995
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T02:11:29Z (almost 5 years ago)
For fiction that can accommodate different POVs, dividing those up per author not only addresses this problem but can be a feature.

For cases where you want a unified voice, if you can't get a tough editor like Lauren Ipsum suggested, try having the authors edit each other's sections. In technical-writing teams I've found that this drives the material toward the center; I have no experience doing this with fiction but would expect it to work. But first sit everybody down to have the "don't take this personally; it's about the work" conversation to reduce the chance of bruised egos.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2012-02-09T16:00:24Z (over 12 years ago)
Original score: 15